Hello Plan To Grow-ers? (Still figuring out a name for us - open to suggestions!)
As the year wraps up, we're preparing a report to release to the wider public dubbed - State Of Strategic Finance 2021 Benchmark Report.
We surveyed over 170 FP&A professionals across Plan To Grow events and produced some really interesting findings. One of which is:
Significantly fewer respondents are using scenario modeling.
Last year, we were surprised to see that only 60% of organizations were using scenario modeling to prepare for the future. Given the crisis underway, it seemed like it should be more widely adopted. This year, with the market still in flux, it's just as critical-but significantly fewer respondents are using it. Only 40% of the organizations we talked to are employing scenario modeling before making forecasting adjustments. This may be due to their better financial health and a perceived increase in stability this year compared to last-yet simply riding the wave of the market without a look ahead puts organizations at risk. Still, 24% of respondents said they'd introduced scenario modeling over the past year or started leveraging it more frequently. And 41% are prioritizing scenario modeling and/or what-if analysis this year.
That's a good move, especially for those organizations that only saw improved performance in 2020 due to market changes or those that didn't see improvement at all. Scenario modeling can help them understand where to unlock additional investments and how to increase their financial performance beyond market rate limiters-putting more power in their hands.
As one of our founding members, we wanted to share the first iterations with you before finalizing to the general public. We'll leave this up for your eyes only (please) until the second week of January. We're very much open to your feedback and would love to incorporate your through leadership into a future iteration.
👉 Link for the report
Sound off below! What stuck with you and what would you want more detail around?
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Truman Tang
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